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At least 1 post per week (frequently 2 or 3): Primarily Epic Card Game strategy articles. Game reviews and other game-related posts are possible as well.

Deck Archetype: Midrange

Foreword

Midrange

If you consistently apply pressure, while preventing your opponent from winning, you will eventually win.

Epic Midrange decks focus on aggressively controlling the board (champions in play), in order to create and exploit unopposed gold-opportunities (turns where your opponent spends their gold first), to establish and maintain immediate/recurring sources of champion-based damage.

Midrange Cards

Below are a few examples of card types that work particularly well in Midrange.

Ambush, 6+ Defense Champion, and…

These cards are powerful for midrange because

they provide an immediate benefit when played or soon after (for example: draw a card, gain health, or deal damage)

at 6+ defense, the only 0-cost card in the game that can immediately remove them by itself is Vanishing (Smash and Burn can incidentally remove them though, so 7+ defense is ideal)

if played on your opponent’s turn when their gold is down, these champions can attack at the start of your next turn, before either player spends their gold

if played when your opponent has no champions in play, you generally don’t need to spend another gold until your opponent spends one first

Blitz, 6+ Defense Champions/Removal, and…

These cards are powerful for midrange because

they are either A) only removable by Hasty Retreat if played when your opponent’s gold is down on your turn and/or B) provide immediate removal and threaten additional damage/removal if unanswered

when played in a deck with ambush, 6+ defense champions, and… cards (see above) and establishing cards (see below), you are likely to be able to play these when your opponent’s gold is down on your turn

they allow you to threaten damage immediately after an opponent off-turn board clears or otherwise disrupts your champions already in play

if after playing this your opponent has no champions in play, you generally don’t need to spend another gold until your opponent spends one first

Fast, Removal, and…

These cards are powerful for midrange because

they can immediately remove most 1-cost ambush champions your opponent could play on your turn, before they can be declared as blockers

they provide an additional bonus like card draw, health, or a 6+ defense champion

many of them can also be played off-turn with a bonus as well

they work particularly well to support 0-cost blitz champions too

6+ Defense, Card Draw/Token Produce “Establishing” Champions

These cards are powerful for midrange because

they are strong to play to an empty board when your opponent’s gold is up (going first is a lot less punishing)

they gain you immediate resources

your opponent can’t use a single card to remove them and get universally ahead

if not answered, they threaten to deal damage and/or provide additional removal

Midrange 0’s

These cards are powerful for midrange because they either have multiple important effects or are incredibly efficient at negating gold.

Spore Beast can negate a 1-cost blitz champion attack without needing gold, and must be removed or else it will continue to do so (also works to remove champions blocking your breakthrough champions)

Midrange Weaknesses

Midrange’s strength comes from sequencing its cards/gold in a precise manner that allows for a consistent stream of mid-sized, almost-unanswerable threats. When this stream is disrupted, the deck can falter. Due to this, I would say these decks require the most aggressive mulliganing. They are also generally weak to aggro that can kill them before they get rolling.

Sea Titan is particularly brutal because, in addition to everything above, it is untargetable. So, a Sea Titan held back for defense can only be removed by Winged Death (Will of Scara in the next expansion, Pantheon), combat damage (frequently requiring multiple champions and/or buffs), or board clears that remove your champions too.

Hyper-Efficient Card Draw

Midrange decks utilize “draw a card” champions more than any other decktype. This allows them to maintain a stream of mid-sized threats without having to play “draw 2s” as often as other decks. In order to mitigate this advantage, some decks run hyper-efficient card draw cards like Muse or Frantic Digging/Lesson Learned -> Ancient Chant. An unanswered Muse, for example, means the non-midrange deck draws 2 cards on their turn; this enables them to play a powerful, non-draw, 1-cost card every turn, largely cancelling one strength of midrange.

Direct Damage

If you lose all your health, board and handsize advantages are irrelevant.

Other Card Considerations

In order to mitigate some of the weaknesses of midrange decks, here are a few more cards to consider.

Efficient Muse/Thought Plucker Answers

An unanswered Muse is arguably the most powerful anti-midrange card in the game, and it is/was popular. Therefore, including multiple answers to deal with it immediately is essential. Many of these can also effectively deal with Thought Plucker, another popular problematic card. (For Thought Plucker, it is also important to have discard pile removal to prevent Final Task and/or Necromancer Lord.)

Miscellaneous

Aside from some of the core midrange cards, the rest of midrange decks are fairly open. The 4 cards above are almost always strong and give you some health gain, efficient back up card draw, some board clear if your opponent has a string of strong plays, and some discard pile removal.